SAINT JEROME
Priest & Doctor of the Church
(c. 340-c.420)
St. Jerome was born in Dalmatia in the year 347 and attended school at Rome. His boyhood was not free from fault. His thirst for knowledge was excessive, and his love for books a passion. He studied under the best masters, visited foreign cities, and devoted himself to the pursuit of science.
But Christ had need of his strong will and active intellect. St. Jerome felt and responded to a call, made a vow of celibacy, fled from Rome to the wild Syrian desert, and there, for four years, learnt in solitude penance, prayer, and new lessons of divine wisdom.
When the Pope besought St. Jerome to revise the Latin Bible, St. Jerome used his fluency in Hebrew to great effect. The Latin Revision was St. Jerome's magnum opus and a blessing from the Holy Spirit. Retiring after to his beloved Bethlehem, St. Jerome illuminated our Christian faith for another thirty years.